Zero Punctuation on Tabula Rasa

Yes, he may hate MMOs, but Yahtzee certainly has some valid points to make about Tabula Rasa. Largely his argument deals with the fact that the game seems to be trying to please everybody, both the shooter-lover and the MMO-lover. Now these are two very different types of players, who expect very different things out of a game. The MMO player loves collecting, building, and creating a character. The shooter player on the other hand wants objectives to overcome, so that they can prove to others exactly how uber they really are.

Trying to appease both parties means that you have most people disappointed. How can they fix this? I guess it comes down to knowing who your target audience is. They can shift their target audience (hell Star Wars Galaxies shifted so much it became an entirely new game), but first Garriott and the dev team have to decide who they want to play their game. Now, it's all well and good to try to build a game that pleases everyone, but I think in order to do that properly you would have to delineate the sections of the game that are for each type of player. This is a tough thing to do, and in the end people will start wondering why you just didn't make two games and have done with.

I think Tabula Rasa can be good as long as they up and decide who they want to play their game. If they want a traditional MMO, then they need to seriously look at the control point concept and reevaluate the "fun" level that comes when you collect 7000 pieces of alien carcass and go to turn them in, only to find the place is now owned by another faction. And in the end, isn't that what gaming is all about, fun?

Note: NSFW warning, although he talks so fast your boss might not even understand the off-color language.